“Do you want to review the court recordings again?”
“What for? They haven’t changed!” Major Joshua snarled. Olive-complexioned and naturally hyper and intense, he had easily assumed the bad-guy role. At this point, however, he was tiring of the game and eager to bring things to a head. “I don’t know why we’re still debating this! The man’s guilty as sin-hell, he even admits it! If we don’t come down hard on him, it’ll look like we’re condoning what he did.”
“Look, Josh-I mean, Major-there were extenuating circumstances involved.”
The rotund Captain Humpty had no difficulty playing the good-guy devil’s advocate. It was his habit to champion the underdog, though this case was trying even his generous tolerances. Still, he rose gamely to the challenge.
“We keep saying we want our junior officers to show initiative and leadership. If we slap them down every time they try something that doesn’t work, then pretty soon no one will have the courage to do anything that isn’t under orders and by the book.”
The major snorted in disbelief. “Incentive! Bloodthirsty opportunism is more like it-at least, that’s what the media called it, if I remember correctly.”
“Are we letting the media set our discipline these days?”
“Well, no,” Joshua admitted. “But we can’t completely ignore our public image, either. The Legion is already considered to be the bottom of the heap. It’s disasters like this that have everyone thinking we’re a haven for criminals and losers.”
“If they want Boy Scouts, there’s always the Regular Army, not to mention the Starfleet,” said the Captain dryly. “The Legion has never been a home for angels, including, I’ll wager, all of us in this room. We’re supposed to be judging this man’s questionable action, not trying to salvage the Legion’s reputation. “